Gas and oil well stimulation requires large volumes of raw sand that are used to hold or “prop” open fractures during hydraulic fracturing, allowing hydrocarbons to flow freely through the open fractures back to the surface. The current equipment and practices used to load, unload, and blend sand during well stimulation allow high concentrations of dust from the sand to vent into the atmosphere and become airborne over long periods of time. This dust may lead to premature wear and may even cause failure of high value capital equipment. For example, clogged air filters and dust packed radiator cores are common causes of engine failure in well stimulation equipment. Additionally, the dust from the raw sand is highly abrasive and may cause premature wear on cylinders, bearings, gear sets, shafts, and other moving parts.
More importantly, such airborne dust may be harmful to exposed operators and third parties. To mitigate the damaging effects of dust in hydraulic fracturing operations, some operators now employ a vacuum system to capture the airborne dust and discharge it into fifty-five gallon barrels or drums.
Positioning and connecting empty fifty-five gallon barrels to the vacuum system can be challenging for the operator, but these challenges are exacerbated when sand-filled barrels need to be moved and emptied. Transporting and emptying a dust-filled fifty-five gallon barrel requires a significant amount of operator effort and the use of heavy machinery. Indeed a dust-filled fifty-five gallon barrel weights about 750 to 800 pounds. The large volume of dust collected via the dust collection system and the concomitant sheer number of barrels that need to be shifted during well stimulation operations can create material handling difficulties.